Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To make fruitful or productive.
  • intransitive verb To bear fruit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bear or produce fruit.
  • To make fruitful; render productive; fertilize: as, to fructify the earth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To bear fruit.
  • transitive verb To make fruitful; to render productive; to fertilize.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To bear fruit; to generate useful products or ideas.
  • verb transitive To make productive or fruitful.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make productive or fruitful
  • verb bear fruit
  • verb become productive or fruitful

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English fructifien, to bear fruit, from Old French fructifier, from Latin frūctificāre : frūctus, fruit; see fruit + -ficāre, -fy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French fructefier.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word fructify.

Examples

  • Boris, like him or loathe him, is happy to use words like "fructify" and

    Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk 2009

  • Mumbai-based Mahindra, which already sells its SUVs such as the Scorpio and Bolero in several overseas markets, previously announced plans to sell a compact diesel pickup based on the Scorpio platform in the U.S. but that attempt is yet to fructify.

    Mahindra to Target Overseas Markets With New SUV Kenan Machado 2011

  • We should indeed be vigilant and not surrender to the resounding sirens of our unachieved democracy and always remember that elections are only a process that we ought to breath life into and fructify […]

    Global Voices in English » Moroccan Elections: The King’s Party Triumphs 2009

  • State-owned steel making company Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd's RINL's plan to go public is unlikely to fructify this year, putting further pressure on the government move to mobilise R40,000 crore from disinvestment proceeds this year.

    Deals India: Morning News Roundup Deals India Staff 2011

  • He had attended Eton and Oxford, two schools still acquainted with the study of classical antiquity, and it’s conceivable that in the media’s terms of endearment he recognized the debt owed to the very ancient Greeks, who allowed their sacred kings to rule in Thebes for a single triumphant year before putting them to death in order that their blood might fructify the crops and fields.

    Lewis Lapham: Domesticated Deities: About Messiahs Come to Redeem Our Country, Not Govern It Lewis Lapham 2010

  • He had attended Eton and Oxford, two schools still acquainted with the study of classical antiquity, and it’s conceivable that in the media’s terms of endearment he recognized the debt owed to the very ancient Greeks, who allowed their sacred kings to rule in Thebes for a single triumphant year before putting them to death in order that their blood might fructify the crops and fields.

    Lewis Lapham: Domesticated Deities: About Messiahs Come to Redeem Our Country, Not Govern It Lewis Lapham 2010

  • Gladstone thought that money was best left to fructify in the pockets of the people.

    Cameron's Coup 2010

  • He had attended Eton and Oxford, two schools still acquainted with the study of classical antiquity, and it’s conceivable that in the media’s terms of endearment he recognized the debt owed to the very ancient Greeks, who allowed their sacred kings to rule in Thebes for a single triumphant year before putting them to death in order that their blood might fructify the crops and fields.

    Lewis Lapham: Domesticated Deities: About Messiahs Come to Redeem Our Country, Not Govern It Lewis Lapham 2010

  • It rains, it pours, it mists, it drips fertilizing fluids from the heavens, which fructify the fields.

    Donna Henes: Spring Fever! 2010

  • He had attended Eton and Oxford, two schools still acquainted with the study of classical antiquity, and it’s conceivable that in the media’s terms of endearment he recognized the debt owed to the very ancient Greeks, who allowed their sacred kings to rule in Thebes for a single triumphant year before putting them to death in order that their blood might fructify the crops and fields.

    Lewis Lapham: Domesticated Deities: About Messiahs Come to Redeem Our Country, Not Govern It Lewis Lapham 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.